Air Force counterattacks Boeing protest against US$35B aircraft agreement

Five issues raised by Boeing Co. in a protest against a US$35-billion aircraft deal should be thrown out because they were improper or should have been raised before final bids were submitted, the U.S. Air Force said in legal documents obtained by Reuters yesterday. The Air Force awarded the contract for 179 aerial refueling aircraft to Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent EADS on Feb. 29. Losing bidder Boeing filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office on March 11. Boeing said the Air Force changed its requirements and the way it evaluated the competing bids in a way that favoured the larger Northrop-Airbus aircraft. The Air Force decision also triggered howls of protests from Boeing supporters in Congress concerned the deal could shift business and jobs to Europe’s Airbus, Boeing’s chief rival for building commercial airplanes.

The Air Force and Northrop filed separate motions to dismiss parts of the Boeing protest on March 26, but the Air Force did not publicly release the details of its motion.
National Post- April 02, 2008